Quote Originally Posted by wojtek View Post
Microrendu

I’ve just received and have been trying a previous version (1.3) microrendu to use to stream to my dac.

The software seems a little bit glitchy but the improvement in sound quality is shocking. I hadn’t really expected too much, but it’s up there with upgrading a preamp. The digital source now sounds good or better than my valve CD player. Annoying thing is it doesn’t like swapping between dacs, you have to pfaff about rebooting. Also, I haven’t tried a raspberry pi but have used a MacBook and iPhone (playing off memory in airplane mode).
I am having great results with a Raspberry Pi 3 running Pi Lite (?) and Roon Bridge feeding a Meridian Explorer 2 DAC. Giant killer of a DAC and a real game changer for me - the Meridian is my first nomination.

Back in time I'd also nominate the Philips CD850 - I think this was their second Bitstream player, it was built like a tank and had a very liquid, smooth sound. Many happy hours spent with this player (about 10 years' worth of them!) I wish I still had it...



I had a long association with the Meridian 506.20 - 'Better than an LP12!' was my youthful exclamation when I first heard it. I stand by the statement.

The Marantz UD7007 I just installed yesterday may end up as my final nomination - a universal player with an extraordinarily well sorted (to these ears) two-channel analogue section (with balanced and phono outs). I'm convinced it sounds better over HDMI than my old Pioneer BDP-450 (common sense tells me it shouldn't/can't). But - oh my - with Blu-ray Audio, SACD, DVD - whatever on analogue out (into my Meridian 502 pre on balanced) - it sounds incredible. Kind of supple and sensuously glowing, all air and space and grace, but with crunch - real fidelity stuff. Nicely built (heavy) with a silent and slick mechanism. And a £900-ish price advantage on the Oppo (which of course does 4k that the Marantz doesn't). This will sate my desire for an SA10 (which I can't remotely afford).